Of course, we all want our skin to glow and skin care product manufaturers sell us on "the secret to beautiful skin lies inside their serums and lotions". Sadly, most don’t deliver on their promise and some are even harmful to our skin. We spend billions on those products every year, and are still searching for the secret to beautiful skin.

As I share with my clients, “What you see on the outside is a reflection of your health on the inside.” If you are looking for something that really works, you need to look beyond the skin-deep approach, and get to the root of glowing skin. You get the added bonus of feeling better, too!

When I look in the mirror and see “old and wrinkled”, it usually means I have forgotten to nourish and hydrate my skin from the inside out. When I practice what I preach, this is my good skin program:

1. I drink AT LEAST ½ my body weight in ounces of water everyday, For example 150 pounds = 75 ounces of water each day. If you exercise strenuously, you’ll need to drink more. I eat lots of hydrating fresh fruits and vegetables, smoothies and fresh vegetables juices, too.

2. I like to do some kind of exercise everyday. Many days, that means just walking for an hour, breathing fresh air. Our lymphatic system doesn’t have a pump, like our heart, to move lymph and flush toxins. Toxins mask our beauty with wrinkles, pimples, cellulite, and splotchy skin. Get moving to get those toxins out. Working-up a sweat or “glow” eliminates toxins through your skin, too. Besides, exercise releases endorphins and puts a smile on our glowing faces.

3. Dry skin brushing is a great way to remove dead skin cells and bring blood to the surface of the skin, to help repair the skin and remove toxins. I use a dry skin brush before showering.

4. I take a high quality omega-3 supplement, probiotic, and antioxidant (almost) everyday. Our cell membranes are composed of healthy fats. Without them, cells become rigid and inflexible, and it shows up in our skin. Inflammation and free radicals are the enemies of radiant skin. Inflammation helps your body to counteract infection and heal trauma, in a short-term event. But long-term inflammation can damage healthy cell functions like cell turnover and rejuvenation. It weakens collagen, causing skin to sag, clogs pores and creates an uneven skin tone.

Free radicals are highly unstable oxygen molecules missing a single electron. Since electrons travel in pairs, free radicals “steal” electrons from healthy cells, damaging those cells and creating a complicated inflammatory response. Antioxidants neutralize free radicals and quench minor inflammation by “sacrificing” one of their electrons to halt the damage. Since free radicals are always present in our bodies, we must have a constant supply of antioxidants to keep our skin cells healthy.

We have internal and external sources of free radicals and inflammation.

Supplements help, but a whole food, nourishing diet will create the most dramatic improvement in your skin. So my diet is made up of whole, fresh, colorful foods and healthy fats. Eating foods high in omega-3 fatty acids can help calm inflammation throughout your body. Foods like wild pacific salmon, sardines, anchovies, walnuts, eggs, and pumpkin seeds are all good sources of omega-3 fatty acids.

The best sources of antioxidants are brightly colored foods. Fresh fruits and vegetables provide a whole rainbow of antioxidants. Berries are a particularly rich source. If you like to spice up your foods, you’re in luck. Spices are the richest source of antioxidants, by weight. But you don’t need pounds of them to benefit. Antioxidant-rich spices include clove, oregano, rosemary, turmeric, thyme, cinnamon, sage and vanilla. Legumes, nuts and even dark chocolate are all good sources, too.Healthy fats include extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, flaxseed, raw nuts, cold water fish like salmon or sardines, and my favorite, avocados.

5. My diet isn’t always squeaky clean, so I lead guided cleanses (and participate in them) each spring and autumn. I feel lighter afterward, and it never fails to rejuvenate my skin.

6. Stress is so corrosive to our skin. Honestly, that is still a work in progress for me. Walking in the fresh air helps. Being good to myself is being good to my skin. So, at night when I look in the mirror, I gaze beyond the imperfections and wrinkles and thank the woman who lies within.